By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

Local colleges and universities have begun broadcasting live webcasts of commencement services over the past few years, enabling parents, friends, and alumni to watch ceremonies that they otherwise would not have been able to attend.

Greg Gatlin, a spokesman for Suffolk University, said in a phone interview that the live webcast caters particularly to family and friends of the graduates, as well as alumni and Suffolk employees.

“We know there is an extended community of people who want to watch the commencement,” he said. “With students who have extended family members who were unable to attend, or Suffolk alumni, employees, and others who really enjoy the great moment that is the Suffolk University commencement.”

Carole McFall, a spokeswoman for Emerson College, said the university has broadcast the graduation online since 2003, and is often popular among alumni. This year, people from 34 states in the US and across 24 countries viewed the live webcast, she said.

According to Ellen de Graffenreid, a spokeswoman for Brandeis University, the school has been streaming commencement online since 2006, as a “cost-effective way” for family and friends to watch the ceremony.

And at Boston University, spokesman Colin Riley wrote in an e-mailed statement that the school has had a live webcast of its commencement ceremony since 1999.

Kim Thurler, a spokeswoman for Tufts University, wrote in an e-mailed statement that the school has provided a webcast of the commencement for the past ten years, “in addition to serving members of our community who may be off campus or otherwise unable to attend the ceremony itself, live streaming provides a bit of a weather hedge.”

“Our all-university ceremony is held outdoors,” she wrote. “The venue on our academic green is normally beautiful but if the weather is unseasonably hot or cold, or rainy, someone who would otherwise enjoy the ceremony outdoors may choose to watch the ceremony indoors.”

At Babson, the college has been live streaming commencement as well as other important events for the past several years.

“For commencement it makes sense for out-of-country families who cannot make it in person,” spokeswoman Barbara Spies Blair wrote in an e-mail, adding, “From an audience perspective, more and more users are tablet owners with easy access no matter where they are.”

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

Boston College will partner with six other universities this fall to offer for-credit classes as part of an on-line initiative, BC officials announced today.

In addition to BC, “Semester Online” will feature courses from Brandeis University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, Washington University in St. Louis, and Emory University.

These courses, in conjunction with the on-line educator provider 2U, will cover a range of topics from accounting to film, BC said in a statement.

“It is an exciting opportunity to explore this consortial approach to online undergraduate education and share our teaching excellence with a wider audience in partnership with peer schools and the nation’s leader in online education,” said BC Provost and Dean of Faculties Cutberto Garza.

The statement said the courses will be available to “academically qualified students” who are attending the universities in the consortium and other schools in the United States. To apply for a class, students must be in good academic standing and enrolled in a four-year, regionally accredited school.

Students attending universities in the consortium will pay standard tuition rates, and students from outside colleges will pay per class, the statement said. According to Jack Dunn, a spokesman for BC, the cost will be $4,200 for one course.

Unlike Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, these classes will be capped at approximately 20 students.

Brandeis announced its involvement with the initiative in November.

“This consortium will expand opportunities for students everywhere and will help us all gain experience and understanding of the broad potential of distance learning," Brandeis Provost Steve A.N. Goldstein said in a statement. "We're looking forward to this exploration of the on-line world."

BC will offer two courses this fall: “How to Rule the World,” taught by political science professor Robert Bartlett, and “Vietnam: America’s War at Home and Abroad” instructed by associate professor of history Seth Jacobs.

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

A walk to honor the victims of the marathon bombing's has been postponed after more than 17,000 people, mostly college students, said on Facebook that they planned to attend Friday's event.

"Out of respect for the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department, the walk originally scheduled for this Friday will be POSTPONED to a date in the future that is more appropriate and conducive to this type of an event," the creators wrote on the event page.

The new date has not been announced.

The organizers wrote on Tuesday that the route for the walk, "Boston Marathon: The Last 5," would be from Boston College to Boston. According to the BC Heights, the organizers of this memorial walk are Boston College students.

"For anyone who did not get to finish, for anyone who was injured, and for anyone who lost their life...we will walk," the event page said on Tuesday. "We will walk to show that we decide when our marathon ends."

Instead, members of the Boston College community are invited to attend a vigil on Friday. The service will be held on the O'Neill Plaza at 4 p.m.

"We encourage other universities in the Boston area, and across the country, to hold vigils at this time in a gesture of solidarity," the organizers wrote today, adding "At the appropriate time and in concert with the City of Boston, we plan to hold the Boston Marathon: The Last 5 event. Our motto remains: We decide when our marathon ends."

Three Tufts University students, seven Emerson College students, three Northeastern University students, two Boston College students, one Berklee College of Music student and a Boston University student were among those injured in Monday's bombings, according to the schools. One BU student was among those killed.

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

By John Swinconeck, Town Correspondent

FRAMINGHAM — A moment of silence and words of prayer were held Tuesday at Framingham State University at 2:45 p.m., roughly 24 hours after the attack at the Boston Marathon's finish line.

"Twenty-four hours ago, we were living our lives, going about our daily activities," said FSU President Timothy Flanagan. "Then everything changed very suddenly, very dramatically. We saw the face of evil yesterday."

Marathon runners and university seniors Patrick Morrissey and Rachel Cooper were near the finish line when the two blasts occurred.

"The run was great, it was a beautiful day, and it all turned to tragedy," said Morrissey, who had nearly completed the race when he heard the first explosion and witnessed the second. "The biggest thing I'm going to remember about this is when the second one went off, the noise echoing off the buildings sounded like 50 bombs going off."

"I've never seen anything happen so quickly," said Cooper, who had finished the race and was two blocks away from the blasts outside a Starbucks, where she was meeting with family. "There was confusion. We thought it was celebratory at first. But then, we realized there was no space for a celebratory cannon."

Cooper said she was soon able to walk to safety to her family's home near the Boston Common.

Morrissey described a more chaotic scene. "There were a lot of ambulances," he said. "As soon as the second one went off, there was just a line of police officers coming out and telling us to stop running. I could smell the smoke, but I couldn't see – nor did I want to see – anything else."

It took an hour for Morrissey to find his family, who were even closer to the blast, but survived unscathed.

After a 26-mile run, he found he had to walk 5 miles south to find a taxi. "It took me until 6:30 get out of the city," he said. "That walk was miserable. I was more worried about getting my family out of there than anything. … My cousin was right at the finish line when it happened."

Both Cooper and Morrissey said it was impossible to grasp the magnitude of a tragedy that happened so recently, and both said they have become tired of the constant news coverage the terrorism that they witnessed.

For Cooper, emotions "come in waves of anger and sadness."

"This is a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching disaster," she said.

"The biggest emotion I've had is almost defiance," Morrissey said. "I want to run again next year. I will run again next year. After something like that, you have to show people. We have to make a statement."

In a prayer, Campus Minister Hai Ok Hwang said the community was lamenting "the innocent victims of terrorism," while at the same time, gave thanks for those who helped those victims.

According to Flanagan, Tuesday's event was held for the FSU community to mourn and support one another. Flanagan said the university community was grateful that those from Framingham State that attended the marathon as participants or spectators were safe.

"As a community, we can overcome even a tragedy of this magnitude," he said.

John Swinconeck can be reached at johnswinc@gmail.com.

By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff

A college “score card,” unveiled last week by the US Department of Education to help families compare the affordability and value of colleges, contains a bit of sticker shock: An average net price of $18,277 a year to attend Harvard University, compared with $32,493 for Northeastern University.

The numbers defy common expectations because the score card takes into account scholarships and grants that do not have to be repaid. Subtracting those from the official sticker price provides a more realistic picture of what the school would probably cost a typical student.

The data include loan-default rates and graduation percentages, and the average each student borrows. The Education Department is working on a database to show the average earnings of former students.

The interactive score card, President Obama said in announcing it last week in his State of the Union address, will help students and families to “get the most bang for your educational buck.”

At universities in Greater Boston, officials welcomed the initiative as a way to show prospective students that the price of a college education might be more affordable than they believed.

“The new score card highlights Harvard’s considerable efforts to offer an affordable college education for undergraduates from all economic backgrounds, whether they study at Harvard College or at the Harvard Extension School,” said Kevin Galvin, a university spokesman.

For a Harvard undergraduate, students from families with incomes below $65,000 generally pay nothing to attend. Families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 pay up to 10 percent of their family income. Harvard is need blind, meaning that financial need is not an impediment to admission.

“We obviously support the spirit of this,” said Mike Armini, a spokesman for Northeastern. “I think it’s a matter of being one of many tools in the toolbox, which would include visiting campuses and speaking directly with admissions and financial aid staff. It’s part of the mix.”

The federal government unveiled the score card amid growing concern about college debt and as many schools continue hiking costs.

That is putting the squeeze on families, even those considered middle class, who may not qualify for much aid and who may be dealing with stagnant wages.

Much of the information already is available elsewhere, education advocates said, but the interactive website is seen as a way for families to find a limited amount of key data in one location.

The figures could surprise some families who might reject a college based on its full, or sticker, price — which often runs far higher.

In Harvard’s case, the total figure is $52,652 for tuition, room, board, and fees; at Northeastern, the comparable cost is $53,226. At Boston University, the annual total bill is approximately $56,000, but the average net cost is $29,899.

“Obviously, it’s a snapshot of the major categories, and they may not provide all the answers. But they’re a good basis for beginning the conversation,” said Colin Riley, a Boston University spokesman, of the new score card.

The College Scorecard also compares institutions against national standards, using indicators that resemble a fire-danger gauge to rank an institution’s costs as low, medium, or high.

Among the indicators is the percentage of a college’s full-time students who receive a bachelor’s degree within six years. They are typically high among the major regional universities. Boston College showed a 90.8 percent rate; Tufts University, 90.2 percent; BU, 84.7 percent; and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 67.4 percent.

Education advocacy groups applauded the score card, but stressed that its scope is limited.

“This is a reasonable and appropriate thing for the federal government to do, but it’s not a game-changer,” said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, an association of colleges and universities. “It doesn’t provide much information that is not already available.”

Similar information can be found on a Department of Education website called the College Navigator, said Hartle, a former education adviser to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

One improvement is that the new score card breaks down indebtedness into average monthly payments, he said, compared with College Navigator figures that show total debt.

Another difference, Hartle said, is that the White House score card on indebtedness includes students who dropped out or transferred from a particular college. By contrast, the College Navigator includes only graduates in its calculation, which increases the average figures.

On the score card, the average monthly payment on a 10-year federal student loan is $88.61 per academic year for a Harvard student and $287.70 for a Northeastern student.

Inquisitive students still need to do some digging to get a full picture of their best college options, but the government has chosen to assist in what it considers to be the most important categories

“Does this fundamentally change what people know about colleges? No,” Hartle said. “I think the big question is whether people thinking about going to college are going to go to the White House website to look for information.”

Armini, the Northeastern spokesman, said he looks forward to seeing information on the score card that reflects employment prospects.

"To us, that is critically important. In our case, 90 percent of our students are either employed or in graduate school nine months after graduation,” Armini said. “We view Northeastern as a high-value proposition.”

Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at macquarrie@globe.com.

Several universities in and around Boston announced Thursday that they would be cancelling classes Friday due to the upcoming storm.

A spokesman for Babson College said Friday classes were cancelled, and a spokeswoman for Simmons College said that the college would be closed on Friday and Saturday.

According to a spokesman for Suffolk University, the university will shut down Friday and Saturday.

The Huntington News, the independent student newspaper for Northeastern University, re-published an e-mail from the university that said classes would be cancelled on Friday. The campus will reopen on Monday, the e-mail said.

At Tufts University, classes are cancelled for Friday, according to a spokeswoman.

Framingham State University announced that the campus will be closed on Friday and Saturday, except for essential personnel.

UMass Boston as well as the Massachusetts College of Art and Design will be closed on Friday and Saturday.

According to Brandeis NOW, Brandeis University will close tomorrow at noon.

A spokeswoman for Bentley University confirmed that the campus will be closed on Friday.

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences will close for both Friday and Saturday. Emmanuel College will be closed on Friday.

Bunker Hill Community College announced on its website that the campus would be closed on Friday and Saturday. Curry College in Milton and Plymouth also announced online that the classes as well as offices will be cancelled for Friday and Saturday.

Bridgewater State University is shutting down the campus on Friday and Saturday. Roxbury Community College is also closed for Friday and Saturday. Bay State College in Boston will be closed Friday.

Salem State College will be closed tomorrow.

By Jaclyn Reiss, Town Correspondent

Framingham State University will eliminate some infrastructure improvements planned for the Hemenway Hall academic building renovation in light of the project's increased cost from rising construction prices around the state, university officials said.

The university will forgo modernizing the interiors of existing classrooms and laboratories in the building, deferring the work until funding is available, said Dan Magazu, a university spokesman.

Earlier this month, officials said they might have to scale back parts of the $64 million project after rising construction costs led the state to drive up the project estimate by $10 million.

"As we anticipated, some of the planned infrastructure improvements to the original building have been eliminated from the scope of the work to balance the project budget," Magazu said in an email.

The main parts of the Hemenway Hall project, which received approval for $54 million in state funding in 2010, will still move forward, including a new science wing with 16 laboratories equipped with cutting-edge technology by 2014, as well as an update the building's existing windows and heating and ventilation system, Magazu said.

Construction on the new wing is slated to begin this April.

The Hemenway Hall project comes after the university opened the brand-new North Hall in fall 2011. The state-of-the-art, $48 million dormitory houses 412 upperclassmen on campus.

University officials also began limiting the annual increase in its overall undergraduate enrollment to 2 percent this past September after experiencing surging enrollment. The school also hopes to build a new $42 million, 350-bed dormitory by 2015 to help deal with growing demand for on-campus housing.

University officials also said the new laboratory wing is essential: Framingham State's enrollment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs has spiked in the past five years. There are now 69 percent more math majors, 37 percent more biology students, and 32 percent more computer science majors, university president Tim Flanagan told the Globe recently.

"We have labs on campus right now, but they pale in comparison to these new labs," Magazu previously said. "These will have the latest technology that students in a variety of different departments will be able to use."

-- Follow us on Twitter: @yourframingham, @jaclynreiss Jaclyn Reiss can be reached at jaclyn.reiss@globe.com